ThePhillyLawyers is composed of lawyers who are former public defenders, and Emmett Madden is Of Counsel at Kilkenny Law, a municipal law practice. We respect and understand public interest lawyers. We are also familiar to their blind spot in identifying personal injury cases. Public interest lawyers use their legal skills to fight for important causes and on behalf of marginalized clients. At the city, state, and federal levels, public defenders and prosecutors are vital to our criminal justice system. Similarly, our civil justice system relies on a wide range of public interest lawyers incl ..read more

Emmett Madden was invited by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute—which is recognized by The Legal Intelligencer as the award-winning continuing legal education provider in Pennsylvania—to serve as a panelist and lecturer on criminal defense practice.  The 5 County Criminal Practice legal educational program is the popular annual program that focuses on how to defend successfully a criminal case in the 5 County area—Montgomery, Philadelphia, Bucks, Delaware, and Chester Counties. The course planners invite five of the region’s highly respected criminal defense lawyers to teach other lawyers the ..read more

On average, every year there are 6 million car accidents in the United States. (About 16,500 accidents every day). And out of these, approximately 3 million people are injured every year. In fact, the NHTSA reports that the average driver in the United States will be involved in 3 to 4 crashes in their lifetime. Apart from obvious preventative measures—such as wearing a seatbelt, not driving under the influence, not texting while driving, not speeding, and obeying the traffic laws—there are some other important areas that are worth considering: Does the type of car insurance coverage that I h ..read more

In the past, for a conviction of any offense under a Federal, Pennsylvania State, or other state’s-controlled substances law, in addition to any other penalty, e.g., jail, probation, etc., a person would also suffer the additional penalty of a driver’s license suspension. That is, after a person with a drug-related offense was prosecuted in criminal court, Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation (PENNDOT) would then impose a mandatory minimum 6-month driver’s license suspension. Often, in those circumstances, individuals were not even made aware of that additional civil penalty—the driver ..read more

Andrew Alston was invited by the Advocacy Program at the Temple Beasley School of Law to serve as a visiting lawyer to deliver a lecture to law students.  His recent lecture was an interactive presentation with a show-and-tell style on the creative use of visuals at trial. He discussed impactful visual technology for lawyers, and he provided an interactive demonstration of sample uses from our real practice. The feedback from attendees shared through the Program Director was that the students loved it.  After developing skills over the years, Andrew is happy to share insight with, an ..read more

Andrew Alston, of ThePhillyLawyers, is thrilled to have been recently appointed as faculty to the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA).   NITA’s Mission Statement reads “NITA’s team of practicing lawyers, professors and judges from around the nation dedicates its efforts to the training and development of skilled and ethical legal advocates to improve the adversarial system.”   Andrew has served as an instructor with NITA’s programs over the past three years, and he is proud to now be appointed as faculty. Andrew applies his recognized trial skills to clients at ThePhillyLawye ..read more

Emmett Madden is excited to have been appointed to the Montgomery County Public Defender advisory board. He is hoping to contribute to building a strong public defender office, and helping to raise the standards county wide for public service and criminal defense. Below is a multi-page article from The Pottstown Mercury: Advisory-board The post Appointment to the Montgomery County Public Defender advisory board appeared first on ThePhillyLawyers Blog ..read more

Because of the seriousness of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) charges, there are certain mandatory minimum penalties that are established by the legislature. And when it comes to drugs in a person’s system, such mandatories can be lengthy. For instance, with a second offense DUI that is in the highest rate category—this means any drugs in a person’s system—such an offense carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 90 days to 5 years’ incarceration, an 18-month driver’s license suspension, and a nu ..read more

John stopped at a stop sign on his drive home from work. Another driver slammed into the rear of his car. Prior to this accident, John was a hardworking, skilled tradesperson who had worked for over two-decades in his trade. But because of his accident injuries, he was out of work for months. When John was out of work, it put significant financial strain on his family. Even though he diligently tried to return to work, the accident-related injuries simply would not allow it—he physically could not do what he could do before. To help John and his family, we aggressively pursued John’s personal ..read more

Because of the seriousness of certain criminal charges, securing release on bail can be difficult, or in homicide cases, impossible. When the most serious crimes are charged—such as first-degree murder—the stakes are so much higher. Even when a person is innocent of those charges, being charged with such serious crimes is very scary. The person gets taken into custody, denied bail, and waits years for trial. When Luis Sierra was charged with a cold-case-first-degree-murder charge relating to a missing person some 45-years ago, he contacted R. Emmett Madden at ThePhillyLawyers. By scores of cha ..read more